India: According to local media, Sunvik Steels plans to expand its integrated steel plant in Jodidevarahalli, Tumakuru, Karnataka. The estimated cost of the project is US$86.8m.

The existing plant has three 100t/day direct reduced iron (DRI) kilns, a 12t/hr induction furnace based steel melting shop, a 100t/day roller mill, a 10MW captive power plant, a 2000bricks/day fly-ash brick plant and one 15t/day slag crusher and beneficiation plant. The proposed expansion will see the plant consist of one 200t/day DRI kiln, a 500t/day induction furnace based steel melting shop, a 500t/day roller mill, 5MW and 10MW captive power plants, a 300t/day blast furnace, two 100t/day tunnel kilns, a 2000t/day iron ore pelletisation and beneficiation, a 6000bricks/day fly-ash brick plant, a 100t/day fly-ash beneficiation plant and a 30t/day slag crusher and beneficiation plant. The project is waiting for environmental clearance.

South Africa: According to Business Day Live, the resources of South Africa's Evraz Highveld Steel & Vanadium, which produces steel and slag, 'are almost depleted,' citing one of the group's business rescue practitioners (BRPs). This means possible liquidation, despite the government having said that it would 'do everything in its power' to ensure that the company remained operational.

The BRPs have until the middle of July 2015 to find a strategic investor to rescue it before Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) emergency funding of up to US$20.3m runs out. "Current trading conditions are extremely difficult. With conditions the way they are, it is going to be tough to rescue the company. Working capital is the number one priority," said BRP Piers Marsden of Matuson Associates. "Fundamentally, market conditions have worsened during the business rescue." He added that there were likely to be continuing operational losses at Evraz Highveld.

Marsden said that the BRPs had drawn US$4.06m of the US$20.3m pledged by the IDC. Seven potential bidders have been lined up, including four multinational groups and three potential black economic empowerment entities. Marsden said that the costs of proceeding to preferred bidder status would be US$10m, for an entity whose estimated US$2.44bn replacement cost has now been written down to only US$122m. The practitioners have not yet issued any retrenchment notices at the company. "We are engaging with unions to try and find solutions," said Marsden.

Japan: According to Japan Metal Daily, the world's first space zero-gravity experiment using steel slag will start in Japan's current fiscal year. The experiment will try to suspend and melt steel slag in zero gravity to directly observe the interface between melt iron and slag. The interface between iron and slag, which is closely related to the steel refining efficiency, cannot be directly observed in earth experiments where crucibles are used. If successful, the basic research will provide highly accurate data on the interface, which are expected to advance high-purity steelmaking.

Democratic Republic of Congo: According to Agence France Presse, a lack of electricity is hindering the Democratic Republic of Congo's mining and slag sectors.

In Katanga's regional capital Lubumbashi, power cuts regularly shut down the furnace at the STL plant that extracts cobalt, copper and zinc oxide from a nearby mountain of slag. It takes 34MW of electricity for the site's furnace to operate at full capacity, but the DR Congo's national power company Snel is only supplying 24MW. "We are living in a situation of continual stress and it's hell," said Jean-Pol Tavernier, STL's maintenance director. Worse still, according to Tavernier, are the outages that disrupt production, sometimes several times a day, for up to seven hours. "Electricity began to become a problem during the mining boom of 2006 - 2007," said Tavernier. "It kept getting worse until becoming really catastrophic in 2012."

The lack of power has forced Chinese company CDM to cut 300 jobs. "We can't work with the little power we have," said CDM's director in Katanga, Akili Peter. "This is what forced us to shut down the four furnaces and lay off all those people working with us."

The Democratic Republic of Congo's mining sector had been enjoying a renaissance amid an influx of foreign investors and high commodity prices since it adopted a new mining code in 2002. However, the country's mining sector lacks about 600MW of electricity according to Ben Munanga, director of energy and infrastructure at the Kazakh group ENRC, who deals with mining energy issues on the country's Chamber of Business. The problem is that the age and poor maintenance of the power stations do not allow state-owned Snel to meet electricity demands. In 2013 it generated about 1500MW of electricity despite an installed capacity of nearly 2450MW.

The head of the Snel's grid in Katanga, Jean Marie Mutombo Ngoie, said that the supply problem was just temporary. "We think that within a year we'll be able to increase power," said Mutombo Ngoie, citing renovations of the power stations that serve mining companies as a reason for his optimism. "However, that won't absorb the entire deficit. We need new production, that is the pressing need."

Some mining companies in the Democratic Republic of Congo are installing generators to alleviate their power problems, while others import electricity from Zambia, both expensive options. In partial response, the government issued a decree in April 2015 exonerating mining companies for four years from customs duties and sales tax on imported electricity and foreign equipment purchased to generate power.